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Hey, RKBA, Thanks for the thoughts. My business is not presently profitable: I would have to support my family mainly with our savings for several months, and, we CAN get by. But it’s a tricky balance between that and having the money to operate and develop the business into a moneymaker. You know: It’s the old “have to spend money to make money” situation. In a better economic time, I’d say that we’d make it. But if things continue to deteriorate... well, that’s the question, isn’t it? How much and how far, and, how long?

The interesting thing is, I even have a potential new GOOD job lined up, but the CEO / part owner of the company (who is a pretty good friend) has basically said he can’t hire any engineering staff until the economy improves. (He’s a bit worried, too.) And, that job is 20 hours driving time away...

My guess is that my bank is in better shape than average. It is more of a local operation, and seems to be somewhat conservatively run. It’s also “in the Heartland” (a rather large area, eh?) and the popping of the housing price “bubble” is not as much a factor here as in some areas. So, unless the consensus is that really bad times are coming, I’m inclined to keep going (but keep my eyes open!)

As for the IRA, my question is whether IRA’s in general could go “poof”. If not, then there should be enough time for it to recover from whatever happens in the next couple years. I absolutely agree that cashing even part of it out would be a last resort.

I think my biggest problem is having enough money for advertising. I’ll bet FR has a policy against my giving out my web site address in my tagline, don’t they...? :-)

Thanks again.